Travel and Leisure released its annual top 500 hotels of the world list in the January issue. As with many magazine lists, the scoring system can be hard to figure out. Nevertheless, it's a positive PR step if you make the cut. Here's some bonus analysis of this year's list of US hotels (using the composite scores):

There are 188 US hotels on the list (38%)

Independent vs. Chain

70% of the top 10 are independent

60% of the top 20 are independent

64% of the top 100 are independent

62% of all US hotels are independent

Location

38 (20%) of the US hotels are in California

17 (9%) are located in Florida

Size

8 of the top 10 (80%) have less than 150 rooms

5 of the top 10 (50%) have less than 50 rooms

19 of the top 30 hotels (63%) have less than 150 rooms

16 of the top 30 (53%) have less than 100 rooms

11 of the top 30 (37%) have 50 rooms or less

Small independents consistently dominate this and other lists...because they're the best at delivering a unique and highly personalized guest experience. And, that's what people want. Yes, I love to prove a point.

By the way, the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai received the highest score of 91.71...congratulations.